Container closure



March 27, 1945.

E. PICK CONTAINER CLOSURE Filed Oct. 28, 1943 IINVENTO Patented Mar. 27, 1945 CONTAINER CLOSURE Eric Pick, EastRockaway, N. Y., assignor to The Permutit Company, New York, N. Y., a corpo- I ration of Delaware Application October 28, 1943; Serial No. 507,388 1 I .3 Claims.

This invention relates to a container'closure; and it comprises a container having a tubular portion made of pliable plastic material and having an open end, stiffening means attached to said tubular portion adjacent said open'end, stiff platemeans mounted on said tubular portion, a

buckle attached to said container, and a strap attached to said container and adapted to be fas tened to said buckle so as to strap the rolled down open end of the tubular portion tightly against said plate means; all as more'fully set forth and as claimed hereinafter.

There have recently come into use containers made of pliable, waterproof plastic material used for various purposes wherein repeated opening and closing of such. containers is required. The means for closing such containers have not been wholly satisfactoryas the closures were not sufficiently tight, permitting more or less leakage of the fluid contents of thecontainers.

The object of this invention isto provide for such containers a closure which is compact, readilyopenedand closed, and reliably leakproof when closed.

The manner in which this object is achieved is shown in the appended drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevational front view of a container provided with a closure according to my invention;

Fig. 2 is an elevational rear View of the upper portion of the container shown in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view, in cross section taken along line 33 of Fig. l and showing the closure in closed condition.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views.

Referring now to Fig. 1, there is shown a container it, such as used for liquid treatment, illustrated and described in a copending application of Walter Howard Reed, in which a container closure according to this invention is disclosed but not claimed. The container has an open top tubular portion H, formed of a thin sheet of pliable plastic material, such as the vinylresin known under the trade name Vinylite. Sheets between about 0.01 and 0.02 inch thick are satisfactory, but the thickness is not critical. Joints of such material may readily be made by the application of a suitable solvent followed by heating with simultaneous application of pressure to the parts to be joined.

Adjacent the open top a stiff strip l2 of plastic material is joined to one side of the tubular portion II, and a pliabl re-enforcement strip l3 to the other side, the end portions of strips l2 and 13 protruding somewhat. beyond the flattened tubular portion l I and being joined to each other at M andl5. I

At some distancebelow strip IS a buckle 20 made of a suitable'stifl material, preferably plastie, is mounted on the tubular portion II by means of -a pliable loop 2|, astifi plate 22 being mounted adjacent to buckle 20; On the opposite side the tubular portion has joined thereto a strap 30 of' a widthto'fit the buckle 28. On strap 3!] is mounted apliable loop 3| which serves to support the container.

When'press'ure is exerted against the ends I .and i5, as by'grasping between-thumb and index finger of one hand, the stiff strip I2-bends so that the middle portion of the re-enforcement strip l3 may be pulled away from striplZ, leaving a relatively wide opening through which liquid or solid substances may be introduced into, or withdrawn from the container.

I To close th container the open top of the tubular portion l l is tightlyrolled or folded 4 times over the strip l2 toward'the buckle 20, where'- upon the strap 30 is pulled through the buckle 20 so as to strap the rolled down folds of the tubular portion ll firmly against the stiff plate 22,.as shown in Fig. 3. In this manner an effectively water tight closure of the open top is obtained, even when subjecting the not folded part of the tubular portion H to external pressureor handling.

The closure may be opened by merely withdrawing the strap 30 from the buckle 2|], and unrolling the folds. The container may be opened and closed repeatedly in this manner without impairing the effectiveness of the closure.

.While four folds have been illustrated in Fig. 3, this number is not critical. Three folds will mak a fairly good closure, but it is better-to provide for a larger number of folds. The number of folds is predetermined by the distance be tween the plate 22 and the top of the tubular portion II, as well as the width of the stiff strip l2.

The parts of the closure device which are joined together are advantageously made of the same general type of plastic material in order to providestrong and permanent joints, except that the tubular portion II, the re-enforcement strip l3, the loop 2|, and the strap 30 are pliable, whereas the strip l2 and the plate 22 are stiff. The re-enforcement strip l3 may be either pliable or stiff. When both the strips l2 and I3 are still, they are preferably split in the middle to facilitate opening the top. Th re-enforcement strip is not necessary to provide a good closure, but it strengthens the top edge of the tubular portion. The stiff strip may, of course, be placed on either side of the tubular member.

Instead of the vinyl resin referred to herein, other suitable plastic materials, such as rubber or plastic impregnated fabric may be employed. Transparency or translucency of the tubular portion, while advantageous in some types of'use, is not essential. It is not necessary that the entire container be made of pliable plastic material. The main portion of the container may be made open end, said end and stiffening means being adapted to be folded upon themselves a number of times determined by the distance of said plate means from the said end, a buckle attached to the one side of said container in the vicinity of said stifi plate means, and a strap attached to the other side of said container and adapted to be fastened to said buckle ,so as to strap the folded down open end of the tubular portion tightly against said plate means.

2. A container closure which comprises a con- I tainer having a tubular portion made of pliable of metal, stiff plastic, or other suitable material;

located on the inside of the tubular portion, or on plasticmaterial and having an open end, stlfiening means attached to said tubular portion adja cent said open end, a buckle, a loop attached to said buckle and to one side of said tubular portion at some distance from the open end, still plate means attached to said one side of said the outside of the tubular portion opposite to that where the buckle is located, i. e. underneath the strap. The important requirement for-obtaining a liquid tight closure is that the folds in the tubular portion are held tightly against the plate 22 by the strap 30.

Modifications other than'those mentioned herein may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention, and reference is, therefore, made to the following claims for-a definition of the I scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

1. A container closure which comprises a container having a tubular portion made of pliable plastic material and having an open end, stiffening means attached to said tubular portion adjacent said open end, stiff plate means mounted on said tubular portion at a distance from the tubular portion at a distance from the open end in the vicinity of said buckle, said end and stifiening means being adapted to be folded upon themselves a number of times determined by the distance of said plate means from the said end, and a strap attached to the other side of said container and adapted to be fastened to said buckle so as to strap the folded down open end of the tubular portion tightly against said plate means.

3. A closure for a container which comprises a tubular portion made of pliable plastic material and having an open end, a stiffening strip attached to said tubular portion adjacent its open end, a stiff plate mounted on the one side of said tubular portion at a distance from its open end,

said end and stiffening strip being adapted to be folded upon themselves a number of times determined by the distance of said plate from the said end, a loop mountedon said plate, a buckle retained in said loop, and a strap attached to the other side of said tubular portion and adapted to be fastened to said buckle so as to strap the folded down open end of the tubular portion tightly between said buckle and said plate.

ERIC PICK. 

